It seems that Ray Blanchard and J. Michael Bailey have a few questions to answer, one of which is, "If they consider transgender lesbians heterosexual men, why do they not consider transmen attracted to men heterosexual women?"

I remember meeting a transwoman who told me that she had been attracted to men, even in her previous life as a male and had attempted suicide over it.

What these far-right politicians and anti-trans activists need to understand is, gender orientation and sexual orientation are NOT the same thing. Which is why there are cisgender homosexual men and cisgender lesbian women.

Contrary to what these far-right activists argue, one, parents of transgender kids do NOT, typically say that they wanted a child of the opposite sex so they tried to force such conformity onto them. I have a nephew who's three and a niece who's one. My brother was hoping for a little girl with my nephew, but he's just as happy with his little boy. And his little boy is a typical little boy. He plays with trucks, blocks and the like, and he does so because HE wants to. My niece is still a bit young, but neither my brother nor my sister-in-law forced gender conformity onto either of them.

Extremists always cherry pick extreme examples, and the situation I am about to describe can be dismissed if used by such activists. There was a case, nearly 20 years ago, in North America, where twin brothers, then aged 36, were born and one of then, Brian's, circumcision was botched, and controversial figure, John Money, suggested that Brian could be raised as Brenda, and be put on female hormones. Brian tragically took his own life.

I say, there is no greater love a parent can have that to see a child in obvious pain of gender dysphoria than taking them to the doctor and having them assessed, and, if decided it is in the child's best interests, puberty blockers are commenced. The right-wing extremists, and that's what they are, would have you believe that a simple trip to the GP sees a script for puberty blockers is written up like antibiotics for a strep throat. It involves an assessment by a child psychiatrist, and then puberty blockers under the guidance of an endocrinologist. And I will say to the extremists, that it is a hell of a lot easier to start a child on puberty blockers and female hormones, in the case of transwomen, than it is to have to have laser hair removal (expensive), possible hair transplants, and other cosmetic surgery.

AND, conversion therapy (a fancy term for masking) is FAR MORE DANGEROUS and INSIDIOUS than the treatment to cosmetically change a person's gender appearance, and THAT has caused far more suicides and suicide attempts than puberty blockers.